Rise of the God-Machines!

 

As alluded to in Conscript Greg's original post on Ferrum Mori, I'm largely responsible for Titan Escalation. I always loved the old Armorcast Reaver Battle Titan, being that it was so closely based on GW's own Epic-scale titan models. Greg's progress on his Titan spurred me on to get mine completed as well.

Last week Greg brought over old Ferrum Mori for the Rogue Trader game (battle report forthcoming) and asked if I could a bit of a photoshoot with our two Titans together, so here goes...

As Greg noted in his post, his Titan is painted in the livery of the Legio Mortis, a Titan legion that turned traitor alongside Warmaster Horus. However, clearly it's early days yet for Ferrum Mori, since Imperial livery is still clearly in evidence alongside Sons of Horus iconography. No tentacles yet either ;-)

Apocalypse-class missile launcher and shoulder pauldron bear Imperial icons.

Decorated powerfist.

Greg did a nice job on the paintwork. He told me he went for a "cleaner" look as opposed to the dinged-up battle damaged look you'll see on my Legio Metalica titan.

"Horus promised to get us a bigger banner if we joined his team."

The Imperial Knight decal sheet included an awesome "VIN plate" transfer which Greg has used to good effect here.

Here's my Legio Metalica Reaver Battle Titan marching as to war.  I chose Legio Metalica (or "Iron Skulls"), a loyalist legion,  for my Titan since Greg was going traitor with his. I also went in a bit of a different direction from Greg's build, with heavier weathering, combined with the traditional Epic-style banners.

Sponge-chipping on the top carapace combined with spot application of Leadbelcher paint to simulate deeper chips.

The banners were downloaded from Bell of Lost Souls - helpfully made available by another Armorcast Reaver enthusiast. You can see his gorgeous Titan here.

Can't have a huge-ass Titan weapon without a kill banner, can you?

Leg armour displays Imperial livery with traditional tabard. I cut two small rectangles of plasticard and superglued the chain to them, then superglued the plasticard to the Titan. The banner top was wrapped around a spare piece of narrow gauge plastic rod. The banner support rod is suspended from the chains, then two skulls from the bits box were attached, one to each end of the support rod. It was a bit tricky to put this together but I think it looks good.

**OMG - I just realized I used the "reversed" banner!! Will have to address this...Jeez **

I made the banner pole from the same gauge rod as the tabard support, painted it and attached the banner with white glue. The Imperial eagle finial is from the bits box as well.

VIN plate from Imperial Knight decal sheet indicates construction on the Forge World of Metalica.

Here's a better view of the banner with Legio Metalica and Collegia Titanica iconography. The pole is removable.

Kill banner is also suspended from a removable chain, so I can switch it over to the Vulcan Mega-Bolter if necessary.

L-R: Ork Stompa, Leman Russ, Shadowsword, Imperial Knight, Land Raider

Here's a group shot with some of the other heavy hitters in my collection, just to show scale. The Reavers are significantly taller and larger than anything else out there. I really like these Armorcast kits - they are big, sturdy and great looking. Unlike Greg, I magnetized the arms using massive rare-earth magnets. This works well but was a bit of a pain, requiring major surgery to the resin. The Titan arms are very heavy and the resin is super-tough.

I really enjoyed working on the Reaver. It's really an iconic model and a great throwback to an earlier era of 40K... a more innocent time, if you will. Enthusiasts like Armorcast founder Mike Biasi came up with a cool project, pitched it to GW, and lo and behold, got a license to produce their fan resin. Contrast with today where fan resin producers get cease-and-desist orders and lawsuits pitched at them. But even if the fan in me doesn't agree, I understand. GW has Forge World in-house now, and doesn't need fan resin. There is more money to be made by selling a $1,000 Titan model themselves than there is in licensing a third-party to sell one for $400.  

I'm just looking forward to seeing these two god-machines go toe-to-toe in a massive Heresy battle. Now THAT will be impressive!